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In the run to the Local Elections, we're asking, who are the leading figures of local government? Who's changing the way are services are delivered? We've identified the David Cameron, Ed Miliband, George Osborne and Nick Clegg of local government...

October’s ministerial reshuffle means a new line-up for DCLG. Mark Prisk MP has been removed as Minister of State for Housing and the Rt Hon Don Foster MP leaves his post as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to become the Liberal Democrats’ Chief Whip.…

According to today’s Times, David Cameron’s advisors now favour a ‘small is beautiful’ approach to policy making. Rachel Sylvester, believes they are downplaying the phrase ‘Big Society.’ It is depressing, both that this public relations spin is newsworthy, and that these two concepts; the ‘Big Society’ and ‘small is beautiful’,…

It was interesting to be there yesterday morning for the ‘re-launch’ of Big Society by the Prime Minister. Here’s a wordle and below is the full transcript of his speech and the question and answer session. Let me just say a couple of things. I mean, normally in politics the difficulty…

Writing in the Evening Standard this week, Matthew Dancona makes a spirited defence of the Big Society. He veers around the subject, pivoting on what he sees as the ideological underpinning of Cameron’s big idea – the small state. This pitching of state against society, government against citizen, really misses…

We blogged briefly on Monday about David Cameron’s plans to set up a Happiness index. As long ago as 2006 he was talking, as newly elected party leader, about the importance of happiness as a political goal, but many will be surprised to find the idea surviving the transition to…

There is an interesting article from the Prime Minister in today’s Observer, setting out progress and plans for decentralisation. In the paragraph on local government David Cameron hints at local government finance reform amongst other things. Note the sequencing… power to neighbourhoods, then ‘after that’ power to local government. “We’re giving more power…

A list of names of potential Tory peers is floating around the web today following a story on the PR Week website. If the Conservatives win the next election, or perhaps even more significantly (in terms of the Lords role) in the event of a hung parliament in which the Conservatives are…

“It felt like I was there with you” someone said, commenting on the frequency of my Twitter updates from Harrogate. Micro-blogging is great for fast moving occasions like the 3 day LGA Annual Conference. Blogging is better I think for more reflective posts. My overall impression of the week was…

UPDATE: The BBC are now running this story, with video clips of David Cameron’s speech, and quotes from me Over the weekend the Milibands highlighted devolution as part of the way forward from the current political mailaise and it is great to see David Cameron stepping up his commitment to decentralise power,…